Sound film blooping apparatus



Sept. 30, 1941. c. .N. BATsEL 2,257,550

SOUND FILM BLOOPING" APPARATUS l Filed Jan. 28, 1938 FI E. 6.

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a a CecilMBasel.

Patented Sept. 30, 1941 SOUND FILM BLOOPIN G APPARATUS Cecil N. Batsel,Los Angeles, Calif., asslxnor to Radio Corporation of America, acorporation of Delaware Application January 28, 1938, Serial No. 187,443

4 claims. ci. 95-75) This invention relates to talking motion picturenlm apparatus and particularly to such apparatus commonly known asblooping' devices whereby the sound track portion of talking motionpicture film is light-impressed in such a vmanner as to eliminateirregularities therein which would otherwise cause clicks or deleteriousnoises during the reproduction of the film. For the purpose of thisapplication a bloop is considered as the modification to, or the changeproduced in, the sound track portion of a lm which when reproduced willproduce a substantially inaudible sound.

The principal object of the invention is to pre,- vent extraneous noisesfrom being reproduced by the sound system during the projection of amotion'picture.

Another object of the invention is to eliminate, in the sound trackportion of a positive illm, the variations in opacities occurring at thecorresponding point in the negative film caused by thc splicing thereofor other foreign variations.

A further object of the invention is to vary the light transmission of alm from transparency to opacity and vice versa without producing anaudible .sound when reproduced.

A further object of the invention is to automatically control and varythe form and/or intensity of the light impressed on the sound trackportion of a lm by variations in lm thickness, such as caused by splicesin the lm, the operating energy for producing the variations inintensity being derived solely from the movement of the iilm.

V A further object of the invention is to provide a blooping deviceadjustable for either variable area or variable density bloops or acombination thereof, and also adjustableas to length of the bloops.

Itv is well known in the motion picture art that diierent sequences ofthe picture and sound track are taken on separate strips of film, thesestrips being eventually spliced together to form continuous negativereels of approximately a thousand or two thousand feet each, the varioussequences being of different lengths from one foot to several hundredfeet. To produce the final print this negative vof spliced negativestrips is passed through a printer in synchronism with positive rawstock either in contact or in optical relation to one another.Ordinarily the splices would show up on the final print as opaque,transparent, or uneven lines or blurs, which fil would cause the clicksand noises mentioned above.

'I'he broad problem of the invention has been already realized in theart as evidencedk by U. S. Patent No. 1,896,682, of February 7, 1933,wherein-are disclosed fogging lamp and shutter types of bloopingdevices. Other methods of producing substantial silence at the splicepoints are also known, such as the cutting out of the iilm or the gluingon 'of opaque triangular or trapezoidal patches at the splice points.The present invention, however, is directed to a fogging or shutter typedevice and is an attachment for a printer Aof motion picture film. Itutilizes an auxiliary light source of constant intensity and a shuttermask to prevent light from fogging the filmV except at the splicepoints. The shutter is controlled by variations in the thickness of theiilm such as an increase in thickness caused by the overlapping splice.That is, a lm traveler such as a roller is moved when a splice passesthereunder, thus actuating the shutter which permits light to strike theiilm. Two forms of the shutter are disclosed which, together with theoptical system, produce different shapes of bloops and diierentvariations in iilm track opacities on the final print at the splicepoints.

Although the novel features which are believed to be characteristic ofthis invention will bepolnted out with particularity in the claimsappending herewith, the invention itself, its objects and advantages,the manner. of its organization and the mode of its operation will bebetter understood by referring to the following description read inconjunction with the accompanying drawing forming a part thereof, inwhich- Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view of the blooping apparatusschematically applied to a lm printer; i

Figures 2 and 3 show the two extreme positions of one form of shuttertaken along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Figure 4 is an illustration of one form of bloop which may be made bythe shutter of Figs.. 2 and 3; l

Figure 5 shows another form of shutter which may be used in theapparatus of Fig. 1;

Figure 6 shows one form of bloop which may be made by the shutter ofFig. 5; and.

Figure 'l shows another form of bloop which may be made with either theshutter of Figs. 2 or 3 or the shutter of Fig. 5.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, in Fig.

printer r(not at s. point il on roller which printing light from a lamprepresented by the .filament i3, may he passed. through lenses l and l5,a slit mask it and an ultra-violet @iter il, if desired. For printingpurposes, the negative and positive nime may be held in contact on theroller l in any suitable manner, but for the purpose of the bloopingoperation, they are passed between the roller and a roller 2G.

Roller is mounted on a lever 2l pivoted at 22, the lever Zi having o.right-angle portion 24 extending into e. light house 2E. Within thelight house 25, the lever 24 has an extension 2l', at the end of which amask shutter 23 is positioned. This shutter may have a curved Ji-typeshape as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, or may be oi' the shigle curved form asshown in Fig. 5. Although one particular lever system 2 i, 22, 24 and ilis shown, it is to be understood that other types of mechanical linkagesbetween the roller 20 and the mask 29 are within the scope of thisinvention, and may be employed to provide any desired multiplyingfactor. That is, for a movement of the roller 20 amounting to thethickness of the nlm, the mask shutter 29 will move a distance,depending on the leverage factor therebetween. It is also to beunderstood that this system may operate as an impact or impulse devicewherein the roller 20 may move a greater distance than the thickness ofthe lm when the movement of the roller is actuated by the splicecontacting the roller 20.

To maintain the roller 20 tightly against the nlm, a tension spring 3i,connected between the point 32 onthe housing 25 and to the lever arm 24,is employed. To control the timing of the 4mask 29 a deshpot arrangement33 is employed.

Thus, dierent speeds of movement of the shutter 29 across the light beammay be obtained by this mechanical lter arrangement formed by thedashpot 33 and spring 3|.

Referring now to the light house 25 there is enclosed therein a constantsolurce of light rays in the form of a. lamp 34, a light beam therefrombeing deiined by a slit 35 in a wall 36 of the lamp house. The lightpassing the slit 35 is transmitted through a light tube 39 to thepositive nlm 9 slightly below the printing point l l. It is obvious, ofcourse, that the blooping point may also be at the roller 1 or before orafter the printing point Il but it must bear the proper relation to thepositioning of the roller 2l in order to light-impress the positive atthe points corresponding to the splices in the negative. Within the tube3S is a lens 4l which may be mounted in a holder slidable in a groove 42for focusing the slit 35 or mask 29 on the film or for producing anout-of-focus condition so that the mask 2S operates as an iris to varythe intensity of the light striking the film.

As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the mask 29 has a curved V-type notch M cutin the upper portion thereof, and in1 normal position the apex of thenotch is just above the upper edge of the light slit 35 to obstruct allthe light through the slitl from reaching the positive film l as shownin Fig. 2. The other extreme position of the notch M with respect to theslit 35 is shown in Fig. 3, wherein the upper edge of the mask 28 justclears the upper edge of the slit. Greater ari-sacco limits of travelmay be had depending on the mechanical leverage factor between theroller 2l and the mask 28.

New to produce the type of bloop 45 shown in Fig. 4, the lens l! is sopositioned as to focus an image of the notch M on the lm and as the maskgoes through a cycle of oscillation, the light will reach the film iirstthrough the apex o! the notch and then over its full Width. Then, as themask returns to normal, the light variation will be reversed and a bloopwill be formed as shown in Fig. 4. Although the bloop is produced on apositive which has no splice therein, the lines 46 and 41 of the ends ofthe negative strips are shown on the iilrn in Fig. 4 to show therelative position of the bloop with respect to the splice .point Now thelens 4l may be so adjusted to allow the mask to act as an iris andalways permit light to reach the film over the entire transverse widthof the sound track regardless of the intermediate positions of the mask.'I'ne various positions of the mask, however, will control the quanta orintensity of the light reaching the iilm and will produce the form o!bloop shown at l! in Fig. 7. This bloop is of the variable density typewhich goes from transparency at both ends and ls graduated in opacitiesto the center point. The relative splice ends of the negative are alsoshown relative to the bloop for purposes of illustration.

In Fig. 5 the form of mask illustrated is ta.- pered in only onedirection across the entire slit 35 and will, therefore, produce a V ortrapezoidal type of bloop 5| as shown in Fig. 6. The setting of the lens4| to produce this type of slit is, of course, such that the mask 29' isfocused on the nlm so that light passes across the sound track portionof the nlm from edge to edge. A bloop of the type shown in Fig. 7,however, can be produced by an out-of-focus condition, as in the case ofthe mask form shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

The present blooping arrangement also lends itself to production of acombination variable density-variable area type of bloop. This isaccomplished by placing the mask 29 slightly outof-focus, and afeathered or graduated edge type of bloop 5| ls the result. That is, thebloop 5| could have sharp edges as shown by the bloop 45, or be of thevarying density type as shown invFig. 6. Similarly the bloop 45 could beproduced having a. variable density edge as shown by bloop 5l. It hasbeen found in practice that the combination type of bloop-that is, oneof the variable area-variable density type, such as shown in Fig. 6 at5I-ls more silent in operation than one solely variable area or variabledensity, as shown in Figs. 4 and '1, respectively.

The above blooping device as illustrated in Fig. l is particularlyadapted to printing devices and can be operated so that the roller 2lhas to move only the thickness of the film to produce sumcient movementby the mask 2S, or may be of the impact or impulse type, where theroller is deected a greater distance than thethickness of the lxn.Furthermore, by adjusting the tension of the spring il and the reactionof the dashpot 3l, the lengths of the bloops are controlled. As shown inFigs. 4, 6 and 7, the bloops are substantially three frames long butthis length could be shortened or lengthened to any desired size by thedashpot and spring adjustments. These elements also control the generalshape of the bloops as well as' the lengths thereof; that is, the lengthof the tapered portions with respect to the full- Width portions.

I claim as my invention:

1. Motion picture apparatus for iight impressing a motion picture iilmat predetermined points thereon for a predetermined interval ot time,the:

points of light impression being determined by the passage of filmsplices past a point on said apparatus, comprising a source of lightrays, means for defining said light rays into a light beam of 'certaindimensions, means for shuttering said GTi 3. Motion picture apparatuscomprising means for passing a plurality of films between a fixed rollerand a movable roller, a source of light, shattering means positionedbetween said source otlight and one of said films, said means beingconnected to saidmovable roller, means connected to said last-mentionedmeans for determining the rate of variation of said shuttering meansduring movement of said roller by spiices in at least one of said lmspassing between said rollers, and means interposed between saidy lightmeans and said iilm for varying the form. and shape of the raysprojected to said lm.

4. Motion picture apparatus in accordance with claim 3 in which meansare provided for projecting a light penumbra of said shuttering means onsaid film, said means being adjustable to project an image of saidshuttering means on said iilm.

CECIL N. BATSEL.

